By KaLeigh Underwood
CV&T Intern
It takes a special kind of person to volunteer. It takes an even more special person to volunteer and stick with a program. That’s exactly what Staci Owens is. Through her nine years with the Estill County Youth Soccer program, she coached and was president of the organization.
Staci, her husband Billy, and their children Aiden and Wyatt. Photo submitted
Owens was only six years old when she started playing soccer. She lived in Cincinnati then and played on both neighborhood teams and select teams.
Whenever her family moved back to Kentucky, she played on the first girls’ soccer team at Madison Central High School. Reminiscing, Owens said that the coaches’ daughter, herself, and two exchange students from Norway were the only four people on the team who had ever played before. They had one win against Brian Station that season.
When she moved back here, met her husband, and had her two boys, it was only natural that her kids play soccer as well.
In 2006, when Owens went to sign up her oldest for the youth league, she told the president how excited she was to continue the soccer legacy. It wasn’t long after she was coaching her own team. She coached for four years before becoming president for five years.
“It was a little crazy when I first joined,” Owens said. “The parents could be really ugly.”
It was because of that ugly attitude she set out with a newfound determination to change the face of the league.
Owens said that coaches, parents, and volunteers of the league needed to be there to praise the players, and build them up, not tear them down.
“I was the momma hen,” Owens said. “I wanted the atmosphere to be enjoyable. If the kids walked off the field with anything but a smile on their face, something was wrong.”
Owens also spent a season as the middle school girls’ coach when their season depended on finding someone to fill the position.
“I think sports are needed desperately today,” said Owens. “Kids just aren’t as physical as I was growing up. There’s a lot less playing outside and a lot more technology and McDonalds.”
Overall, looking back at the time she spent with the league, Owens said she met a lot of nice people, and made a lot of friends. But mostly she hopes that she was a positive influence, and that she touched the kids’ lives.
“I hope years down the road one of the kids runs up to me (no longer kids of course), and hugs me, and thanks me for my time spent with the youth program,” Owens said. “I want to know that I made a difference to them. We need to be making memories for these kids.”
This fall a new board will take charge, and Owens is no longer a member. She said when her boys got too old to be a part of the program, she knew her time was done. The new board includes President, Ashley Riddle; Vice President, Lelia Elam; Secretary, Courtney Barnes; and Treasurer, Becky Crawford.
“I feel like I left my baby in good hands,” Owens said. “The ladies will keep the program the way it is now without letting it go back to the hostile way it was when I first started.”